Looking to improve an old PC, I need advice

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Zaar, Nov 29, 2013.

  1. Zaar

    Zaar Private E-2

    hello

    I was given an old Dell computer some years ago and I use it everyday for surfing the web mostly. I have a good collection of games on Steam (mostly low end/older games) and I would like to improve my gaming experience a bit. I play mostly indie games without problems but I sometimes play TF2 or Oblivion for example and I cant say it's really pleasant.

    Here are some specs from my machine:

    Processor: Intel Pentium D 820
    Video card: ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 Series (256MB)
    RAM: 2GB (1x1GB, 2x512MB)
    OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional

    My main question is, what kind of graphic card could make a difference for me (on a 30-40$ budget). I believe I use a PCI-Express (x16) interface, would it matter if I get a PCI-Express 2.0 card? would a DDR3 card still work? does using Windows XP means I can't use certain cards?

    As you can see I don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of specs and I would really appreciate some advice. Here are 2 models I have found online that would fit my budget:

    http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...
    http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item...

    Thanks for reading!
    Vince
     
    Zaar, Nov 29, 2013
    #1
  2. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    30-40 is rought. Closer to $100 might help. Your links are not working.

    We need to know what your motherboard supports so a make or model of the PC or motherboard would tell us what kind of video card you can put in there. PCI Express is the newest format, hopefully what you have and XP can work with it.

    Double your ram too, it's cheap.
     
    Major Attitude, Nov 29, 2013
    #2
  3. Zaar

    Zaar Private E-2

    Thanks you for your reply, I didnt notice I posted bad links... here they are:

    http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133461
    http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=852267&CatId=28

    I checked the info for my motherboard here is what I see:

    Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
    Model : 0HJ054
    BIOS Name: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A05

    I am not looking for a major improvement, I wanted to see if purchasing a cheap video card (slightly better than mine) would be noticeable. I will consider doubling my RAM too.

    Thanks
     
    Zaar, Nov 30, 2013
    #3
  4. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    Very important to note. Is the graphics card you currently have onboard? If it is, it shares memory with your PC memory and a memory upgrade might achieve what you want. It says 256 megs, so I am assuming it is NOT an onboard video card but rather plugged into the slot on your board. A quick look online and it appears to be a plugged in PCI-E card.

    Both of those cards more than double your video ram, so that's an improvement. Again, you are looking at replacing an older card with an older card so while it will improve, it won't be huge simply because thats a really old processor, RAM type, etc. In other words the rest of your hardware is old so you are limited and I think your choices are PERFECT for a small upgrade to keep that box alive an extra year or two.
     
    Major Attitude, Nov 30, 2013
    #4
  5. Zaar

    Zaar Private E-2

    This is by far the most informative answer I got from all the forums I have posted with my question, I do understand I am merely patching up an old box.

    My graphics card is not onboard, it is indeed a physical card plugged into PCI-E. So from what I understand, there wouldn't be incompatibilities with both cards I linked and my machine? If so I am going to buy one and see if I can get a slight bump in game performances.

    I thank you for your time and your advice, it is really all I wanted to know.
    Vince
     
    Zaar, Nov 30, 2013
    #5
  6. Zaar

    Zaar Private E-2

    Just one last thing, does it matter that the memory of the card is DDR3 if I have DDR2 type atm?
     
    Zaar, Nov 30, 2013
    #6
  7. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    PCI-Express is PCI-Express. I found one issue for you that might make your decision: Power supply requirements.

    The XFX requires 400 watt power supply. Odds are you might not have that:
    http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=852267&CatId=28

    The PNY card only needs 300:
    http://www3.pny.com/8400-GS-1024MB-DDR3-PCIe-font-colordc0633Special-Offerfont-P3091C269.aspx

     
    Major Attitude, Nov 30, 2013
    #7
  8. Major Attitude

    Major Attitude Co-Owner MajorGeeks.Com Staff Member

    As far as I know, no.
     
    Major Attitude, Nov 30, 2013
    #8
  9. Zaar

    Zaar Private E-2

    That is an excellent point that I totally forgot to consider, I just checked and my PSU has an output of 305W... so thats that.
     
    Zaar, Nov 30, 2013
    #9
  10. plodr

    plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

    Another thing to consider
    That will only be supported for less than 5 more months.
    Time to pull the XP computers of the internet in April 2014.

    You will be okay using the computer off the internet.
     
    plodr, Nov 30, 2013
    #10

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